Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Freehold offers beginning acting classes for the absolute beginner as
well as master classes for working professionals. Freehold
has been offering acting classes in Seattle since the summer of 1991.
All Freehold faculty are
working professional actors, playwrights and directors whose
credentials include recognized work on and off Broadway, in major motion
pictures, on television, and in regional and international theatre
venues. Our Winter Class Roster is listed below. TO
REGISTER for a class or to read more about the individual classes
and their dates and times, click on the highlighted class below or
call us at (206) 323-7499.

Reserve a space in one of our classes by registering for a
class by December 5th and receive a 5% early bird discount (registration
requires paying at least the minimum class deposit for the class).

Join us for our free Winter Quarter Class Sample event on Friday, December 5th at 6:00 pm at Freehold and sample several of our classes including Intro to Acting, Improv, Playwriting and The Directing Workshop. RSVP for a space in one of our class samples here:http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/950867

Monday, November 10, 2014

You may have heard the adage “nobody needs a lawyer…until
they need a lawyer.” It can be the same with vocal
coaching. We get called in to help people who are losing their
voices, to fix off-kilter accents, or to enable people to simply be
heard. These sessions can be highly emotional at first, fraught with
frustration and a fear of being branded as a “problem actor,” vocally
speaking. With a little vocal training, however, you don’t have to
find yourself battling vocal nightmares such as:

1.PAIN -
why would you want to act if it hurts? Some actors, (and even some
directors), falsely believe it is just a part of the job. In fact,
union actors who have to scream in video games are supposed to be provided an
extra fee because it is anticipated that the actor will be unable to use
his/her voice the following day. The extra money is lovely, but
never risk cannibalizing your voice for one project.With proper training, you don’t have to.

2.DAMAGE –
If you’re already experiencing acute pain, put yourself on vocal rest
immediately and contact an otolaryngologist to rule out the possibility of
nodes, polyps, lesions, or other conditions which could permanently damage your
voice, lead to chronic pain, or force you to turn down work.

3.INABILITY
TO TAKE DIRECTION – Whether for creative purposes, bottom line issues,
or both, theaters often cast actors in multiple roles. If all your characters
sound exactly the same and you are inflexible in your ability to help create
the world the director is trying to populate, it may limit your casting.

4.FEAR
OF ACCENTS/DIALECTS – If I asked you to name your favorite
bad accent in a play or movie, which one would you name? For most
people, especially actors, this is easy to do. Unfortunately, that
is one reason the joy of being cast in a show requiring accents can be tempered
by stomach-churning self-doubt about convincingly portraying the role(s). In
our increasingly connected world, it is difficult to get away with
manufacturing a “general” accent. But the vast majority of
humans have teeth, lips, jaws, tongues, soft palates, and glottises, so it’s
really just a matter of playing around with these articulators, and knowing
your equipment, so to speak. One voice class can go a long way
towards conquering this kind of fear. (My favorite bad accent is the
“Scottish” one in The Highlander, by
the way. I’m giggling just thinking about it.).

5.CAN’T
BE HEARD – Drawbacks to being inaudible require little explanation,
though it bears mentioning that knowing how to be more relaxed and
resonant is the best substitute for straining to achieve more
volume. That, and knowing how to use your transverses abdominus.Do you?

6.LIMITED
EMOTIONAL RANGE – You may have heard that breath and emotion are
connected, but what does that mean? To quote Saul Kotzubei, master
teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework ™, “We can control our breathing to
reduce the impact of difficult feelings and experiences. That’s not a bad thing.
It’s an important ability we have. For performers, a problem
arises when our ability to manage our difficult experience by controlling our
breathing becomes an instant, habitual, and largely unconscious response… It is
very hard to express vocally what you cannot experience, and performers often
push the voice to compensate. In addition to causing the voice to be
disassociated from the truth of the moment, this can also cause vocal strain or
fatigue.” For more on this, go HERE.

7. COST OF MEDICAL TREATMENT – This requires
no explanation. Unless you’re sitting on
a big pile of money and have all the time in the world.

Studying voice can not only address all these concerns,
but it can be a liberating way to open up your imagination and have even more
fun acting than you ever thought possible.It can be joyful, it can be challenging, and it can require you to
enhance how you synthesize your body, heart, and mind.It can improve life both on and off the
stage.And it just feels good.

So, which path do you prefer to choose?

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Gin Hammond will be teaching a Voice class at Freehold Theatre in Seattle this coming Winter Quarter. Stay tuned. Winter Quarter registration opens on November 17th!

Freehold is excited to be offering our "The Directing Workshop: Process and Practice for Stage and Film" with John Jacobsen and Robin Lynn Smith again this Winter Quarter. This hands-on
directing workshop, designed for directors at all levels, is a unique
opportunity to work with two master teachers from two different worlds. For more information on this class and how directors and actors can apply, go here. To see the testimonials from past students, see below.

"The Film Director's Lab is nothing short of a
graduate program. The lab's structure empowers fellow directors to go deeper
into the subtext of written material alongside writing one's own short screenplay
and to understand the nuances of working with actors among other things. The
most enriching aspect of the lab is the ongoing feedback, mentoring and
coaching from the faculty - John Jacobsen and Robin Lynn Smith. Their love for
the art and craft of directing is evident from their commitment to the field.
To experience them collectively is a gift that will keep on giving. Finally,
the best part of the lab for me is the strong community and friendships I have
formed with fellow directors and actors. I feel blessed to have been given the
opportunity to be in this lab. It delivers so much more than it promises to. I
would do it again!"- Monish Gangwani

"This class is undoubtedly invaluable because Robin and
John, respected and admired masters in the art of acting and filmmaking in our
region are teaching it.Together they
have created a unique opportunity to learn how to direct films in a manner that
is practical that considers all the important elements needed to complete a
film project successfully.By working on
three projects in class I learned to write a screenplay,to let go and trust in the abilities of other
members of my team,the rules of translating
word to image and shooting effective scenes, the importance of storyboarding
and the shot list to arrive well prepared before the day of filming and the
important and often overlooked main role of a director. Knowing how to work
with actors to help them bring on the best performance on set.The technical and the artistic parts of
cinema, the science and art interlaced intimately as they are especially in the
world of film.In a personally
meaningful way and as an alumna of Freehold who started taking acting 101 5
years ago, Freehold made this program accessible to me.Something that felt impossible to achieve in
the 80s as a teenager walking into Columbia College in Chicago and dreaming of
becoming a filmmaker.Robin and John
gave me an incredible gift, the opportunity to make that shelved 30 year old
dream a reality - to not only study it but be a filmmaker from day 1.And for that I’m grateful." -Maristela Diaz

"This was probably the best class I've ever
taken. John and Robin are both brilliant, challenging voices who bring total
commitment and passion to every minute they are in class. I took some big
drinks from the humility firehose, but feel vastly more prepared to continue
the journey thanks to their lazer critiques and guidance."- Devin
Hermanson

"This class brought me to life.For the first time I wasn’t overcome with
worry about how I was doing or whether I was good enough.I just wanted to learn ... to experience ...
to grow.John and Robin live that
approach to their craft and they create a safe place for their students to live
it as well.There was so much to learn,
even though the 8 director-students knew a fair amount about film making
already.I felt both excited and nearly
overwhelmed.But Robin and John adjusted
the course to fit our needs as we went along, making sure we got what we needed
in order to build a foundation of competence and move progressively forward in
developing our craft." - Leslie Asplund. To read more about Leslie's
experience in the class, go here.

“I got into the filmmaking game almost 15 years ago. In
that time I've done just about every job you can imagine and wound up making my
living as an editor. Though I'd done some writing and directing here and there,
my experience in these disciplines was, well, less than disciplined. When the
opportunity came about to apply for the Freehold film directing course with
John Jacobsen and Robin Lynn Smith, I jumped at it. The small class size and
very direct interaction with John and Robin was a very real plus for me as
having direct access to the experience and wisdom of these two was invaluable. The class itself was rigorous and demanded a lot of time
and energy on my part. It required me to push myself into uncomfortable
territories that ultimately increased my confidence in my ability to work with
actors, get to the heart of a story and coax the best performance possible out
of the cast. Coupling the director's track with an actors track is a stroke of
genius as there was never a shortage of talented, up-and-coming talent that
were similarly motivated to enhance their craft. This class has given me the skills and confidence to not
only direct narrative films, but it has also made me a better, more disciplined
editor and writer.” – Kirk Nordstenstrom

“I’ve studied with some of the most highly respected
names in the business, schools and working film and TV professionals on both
coasts. John’s and Robin’s Film Directing Course is unique and extraordinary in
my experience. Their focus, intensity, and commitment to making you a better
artist is unparalleled. Their course is a crucible from which you will emerge a
leap ahead in your chosen craft, whether it’s directing, writing, or acting.
You may meet your community of creative collaborators, as I did. Given the
opportunity as an emerging director to take a course like this, from two
instructors of this caliber, there’s only one answer...yes!” –Jeff Barber

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

John Helde is a Freehold Board Member who attended an enhanced performance as part of Freehold's Engaged Theatre tour's production of The Flower of England's Face: Henry IV this past summer. Freehold hosted an enhanced performance which brought together audiences from seemingly disparate, disconnected communities where guests first saw the play, then broke bread together and engaged in debates with characters from the play while using improvisation, story telling, free writing and group poetry to explore the themes of the play. Freehold invited groups from Path with Art, Expedia, UW, Boeing and Getty Images to participate in the enhanced performance. Here's John's experience of his participation in the event ....

I’d been anticipating this summer’s Engaged Theatre
production The Flower of England’s Face: Henry IV – a special cutting
and reworking of three of Shakespeare’s historical plays – for awhile. I
had the opportunity to see a work-in-progress last summer and it was electric
even then. Then last May, Robin Lynn Smith asked me to collaborate on a
unique “surveillance” film she planned to integrate into the play; it was a
blast to work with the cast and Robin to shoot the noir-ish flashback one
morning in a back stairway at Freehold.

So when I was invited to attend the first “enhanced”
performance I happily signed on. The workshop following the Sunday
afternoon performance promised to include “story telling, free writing and
group poetry inspired by themes from the play.” The play was a completely compelling piece of theatre with a
clear story, passionate actors and brilliant live music pouring from the wings.
And, yes, it was sweaty! It was a hot July night with no AC.

But it was in fact a great night to gather outside the UW’s
Penthouse Theater afterwards with fellow audience members. Daemond
Arrindell, Robin’s collaborator on the workshop,is a poet and teacher.
He has a resonant voice and a generous spirit and he led us through a series of
exercises that gave the group a way to interact with each other. My favorite
was a “group poetry” project inspired by the play. The premise is this:
it’s intimidating for the vast majority of us to write poetry spontaneously.
Daemond went around the circle soliciting words and phrases that emerge
from our understanding of the themes of the play, while Robin scribbled them up
on a piece of butcher paper. When we were done, Daemond read our
“instant” poem aloud and lo and behold! - it was a surprisingly powerful
piece. I love that one piece of art combined a willing audience can
create a wholly new piece of art in a matter of minutes.

Then, we rolled up our sleeves and made our own poems. Daemond offered a prompt: “If my dignity was a coat…” and away we went
scribbling as fast as we could without thinking. When I was through covering
one side of my 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper with my illegible handwriting, I found
myself hoping a little that we were done; but we kept on cranking it out until
Daemond called it. Then, an even bigger challenge: sharing this
work with the group. I’m a filmmaker and a writer, and of course a big
part of making creative work is sharing it. However, I’m used to editing
and tweaking for a long time in private before that point. Now,
there was no opportunity for that. One after another, we stood up to
share our instantaneous poems. The idea of dignity – such a personal and
tenuous one – grew to have many forms and facets. A young man who’s had
difficult experiences growing up; an aging woman who’s passionate about peace…
back to back the poems made the idea grow both more personal and more
universal. I felt like we began to realize how tied we are by one word,
and how each individual voice brings something new to our understanding. The
words that poured out felt powerful and true, and I admired people’s courage
and vulnerability.

Never did these games feel contrived, like, say, an overly
upbeat session you might encounter at a company morale booster. The
evening felt like a great meal. Maybe the play was, surprisingly, the
appetizer. Sharing ourselves with our fellow audience members in a forthright
way on a beautiful summer evening was the main course. And writing a
poem, dessert. The workshop was an honest and collaborative way to extend
the emotional experience of the play into a connection with those who
experienced it with you. It was also a reminder that people are
surprising and full of creative spirit, if they take the opportunity to
play. I walked out into the twilight of the U-District feeling like
I’d traveled someplace pretty stirring with a bunch of new friends.